One of my cats is a f**ktard...

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

I gave him some ham on a napkin. He licked the ham and proceeded to eat the napkin.

[ScreamingMeemie]

1. Hey...did the gecko ever leave his "resting place"...?

Merlin, my cat...often times leaves the meat alone and devours the paper towel. I wonder why that is. :hi:

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

2. Yeah, he's been in his tank for quite awhile now...

Once I decided to go to bed, I made him go from the bra to the shoulder for the two flight walk from my basement to my bedroom. He didn't mind, he curled up one of the moss-filled tupperware containers with one of his girlfriends.

[ScreamingMeemie]

3. I saw them in your pet photo thread. Spot is adorable. I did not

realize geckos had such expressive faces. I think I might want one. ;)

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

4. Leopard geckos have an awesome stare.

They're super calm. I mean, they're like the fascinated stoners of the lizard world. They just find something interesting and they will stare at it forever. The first time they saw my rabbits, they all lined up to stare at the rabbits (I had their tank on my floor at the time). If I miss a feeding, they come out and claw at the glass when I come into the room. I get totally guilted out and end up making the pet store trip.

You can get a "normal" colored baby for around $20 (the babies have bands that turn into spots as adults). They're a bit hyper when babies, but it's cool seeing them get their grown-up coloring. Plus what would be around $20 as a baby is about $90 as an adult. Super easy to take care of too.

[ScreamingMeemie]

5. Thank you for the information. Do your cats get on well with them?

I have been looking for a small pet that James can keep in his room and he is gungho for a reptile, but most of them are too "scary" (for lack of a better word), but the geckos look almost congenial. I bet the rabbits really liked being stared down. ;)

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

7. The rabbits were oblivious.

The cats are fine with them. Only Midnight & Ginsberg are into hunting. Even without the clips on the cage, the cats can't figure out the screen. I use clips on it, just because I have them, but the other tanks just have the screen. My cats will watch them and bat at the glass, but that's it. If a gecko is out of the tank, it's generally on a person. The cats aren't going to attack a gecko off my shoulder.

The leopard geckos are a really good starter reptile. They're much hardier and calmer than the cheaper anoles ("chameleons") or house geckos. As babies, they're a little skittish but with handling they calm down really well. They also don't require an expensive set-up or anything. A single leopard gecko can be housed comfortably in a 10g fish tank. Don't use sand or wood chips on the bottom, because they're dangerous, if swallowed. I always used papers towels until recently, I switched to slate tiles. They only use one corner of the tank as a bathroom, so the rest stays clean. It's cheap and easy to switch out the paper towels about every other week. They're nocturnal so they don't need flurescent light. You can either put a heating pad under the tank or just use a metal dome heat lamp with a red heat bulb or a blacklight heat bulb. Way, way cheaper than having UV lamps set up and heat bulbs. Decorating the cage can be elaborate or cheap. My set-up is the cheap way. A storebought rock hiding cage, a few tupperware humidity hides (I use damp moss so they can bury the eggs, but you can use damp paper towels), paper towel tubes (which they LOVE), a water bowl, plastic vines (not needed, but I liked them), and obviously a couple action figures (not needed, but I liked them). They need the humidity hide to help them shed, even when not shedding, they'll hang out in it though. Other than that, give them some crickets every few days, and they're good to go.

I bought Stumpy & Killer as babies about three years ago and I've had Spot for about two years (he was an adult given to me by a reptile breeder friend). They all get along, provided they're all about the same size and you only have one male to a tank.

[hyphenate]

6. ....

:rofl:

Cats eat the strangest things......

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

8. The other three cats eat normal things.

This cat just eats everything. He likes delicata squash, olives, sushi (not weird except that he eats the veggies, seaweed & rice too), etc. Last week, I made a tuna sandwich and I could only eat half. He ate the whole other half, including the bread. This was right after eating a whole can of cat food too. Amazingly, he's not fat. He's tall & long. About 12 lbs. of fat-free muscle.

[hyphenate]

9. My Jessica is a diabetic

and will eat anything! Potatoes, spaghetti, toast--if I'm eating it, she wants it.

We used to have a Siamese almost 30 years ago who had a fondness for strange stuff, too, but it was an actual disease called "pica." He loved phone cords, stuffed animals, socks....it all came out the other end.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

10. He's not that bad.

He'll chew on wires (amazingly never plugged in) but aside from that napkin, I've never seen him eat a non-food item. He also is young and super active, so I think he needs a lot of food. He spends most of his time outside finding gifts to leave for me. He's a cute lunatic basically.